or **COUNSEL**, in a general sense, an assembly of divers considerable persons to concert measures relative to the state.

In Britain, the laws, in order to assist the king in the discharge of his duties, the maintenance of his dignity, and the exertion of his prerogative, hath assigned him a diversity of councils to advise with.

1. The first of these is the high court of parliament. See *Parliament*.

2. The peers of the realm are by their birth hereditary counsellors of the crown; and may be called together by the king, to impart their advice in all matters of importance to the realm; either in time of parliament, or, which hath been their principal use, when there is no parliament in being. Accordingly, Brackton, speaking of the nobility of his time, says, they might properly be called "consules a consulendo; reges enim tales sibi associant ad consulendum." And in the law-books it is laid down, that the peers are created for two reasons: 1. *Ad consulendum*, 2. *Ad defendendum, regem*: for which reasons the law gives them certain great and high privileges; such as freedom from arrests, &c. even when no parliament is sitting; because the law intends, that they are always afflicting the king with their counsel for the commonwealth, or keeping the realm in safety by their prowess and valour.

Instances of conventions of the peers, to advise the king, have been in former times very frequent; though now fallen into disuse, by reason of the more regular meetings of parliament. Sir Edward Coke gives us an extract of a record, 5 Henry IV., concerning an exchange of lands between the king and the earl of Northumberland, wherein the value of each was agreed to be settled by advice of parliament (if any should be called before the feast of St Lucia), or otherwise by advice of the grand council of peers, which the king promises to assemble before the said feast, in case no parliament shall be called. Many other instances of this kind of meeting are to be found under our ancient kings: though the formal method of convoking them had been so long left off, that when king Charles I. in 1640, issued out writs under the great seal, to call a council of all the peers of England, to meet and attend his majesty at York, previous to the meeting of the long parliament, the earl of Clarendon mentions it as a new invention, not before heard of; that is, as he explains himself, so old, that it had not been practised in some hundreds of years. But though there had not for long before been an instance, nor has there been any since, of assembling them in so solemn a manner, yet in cases of emergency, our princes have at several times thought proper to call for, and consult as many of the nobility as could easily be brought together; as was particularly the case with king James II. after the landing of the prince of Orange; and with the prince of Orange himself, before he called the convention parliament which afterwards called him to the throne.

Besides this general meeting, it is usually looked upon to be the right of each particular peer of the realm, to demand an audience of the king, and to lay before him with decency and respect such matters as he shall judge of importance to the public weal. And therefore, in the reign of Edward II. it was made an article of impeachment in parliament against the two Hugh Spencers, father and son, for which they were banished the kingdom, "that they by their evil counsels would not suffer the great men of the realm, the king's good counsellors, to speak with the king, or to come near him; but only in presence and hearing of said Hugh the father and Hugh the son, or one of them, and at their will, and according to such things as pleased them."

3. A third council belonging to the king, are, according to Sir Edward Coke, his judges of the courts of law, for law-matters. And this appears frequently in the English statutes, particularly 14 Edward III. c. 5, and in other books of law. So that when the king's council is mentioned generally, it must be defined, particularized, and understood, *secundum subjectam materiam*; "according to the subject matter:" and if the subject be of a legal nature, then by the king's council is understood his council for matters of law; namely, his judges. Therefore, when by statute 16 Richard II. c. 5, it was made a high offence to import into England any papal bulls, or other processes from Rome; and it was enacted, that the offenders should be attached by their bodies and brought before the king and his council to answer for such offence; here, by the expression of king's council, were understood the king's judges of his courts of justice, the subject-matter being legal: this being the general way of interpreting the word *council*.

4. But the principal council belonging to the king is his *privy council*, which is generally, by way of eminence, called the *council*. For an account of its constitution and powers, see the article *Privy-Council*.

**Aulic Council**. See *Aulic*.

**Common Council**, in the city of London, is a court wherein are made all bye-laws which bind the citizens. It consists, like the parliament, of two houses; an upper composed of the lord mayor and aldermen; and a lower, of a number of common-council men, chosen by the several wards, as representatives of the body of the citizens.

**Council of War**, an assembly of the principal officers of an army or fleet, occasionally called by the general or admiral to concert measures for their conduct with regard to sieges, retreats, engagements, &c.

**Council**, in church-history, an assembly of prelates and doctors, met for the regulating matters relating to the doctrine or discipline of the church.

**National Council**, is an assembly of prelates of a nation under their primate or patriarch.

**Oecumenical or General Council**, is an assembly which represents represents the whole body of the universal church. The Romanists reckon eighteen of them; Bullinger, in his treatise de Conciliis, six; Dr Prideaux, seven; and bishop Beveridge has increased the number to eight, which, he says, are all the general councils which have ever been held since the time of the first Christian emperor. They are as follows: 1. The council of Nice, held in the reign of Constantine the Great, on account of the heresy of Arius. 2. The council of Constantinople, called under the reign and by the command of Theodosius the Great, for much the same end that the former council was summoned. 3. The council of Ephesus, convened by Theodosius the younger at the suit of Nestorius. 4. The council of Caledon, held in the reign of Martianus, which approved of the Eutychian heresy. 5. The second council of Constantinople, assembled by the emperor Justinian, condemned the three chapters taken out of the book of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, having first decided that it was lawful to anathematize the dead. Some authors tell us, that they likewise condemned the several errors of Origen about the Trinity, the plurality of worlds, and pre-existence of souls. 6. The third council of Constantinople, held by the command of Constantius Porphyrogenitus the emperor, in which they received the definitions of the five first general councils, and particularly that against Origen and Theodorus of Mopsuestia. 7. The second Nicaean council. 8. The fourth council of Constantinople, assembled when Louis II. was emperor of the West. The regulations which they made are contained in twenty-seven canons, the heads of which are set down by M. du Pin, to whom the reader is referred.